"We Thought It Was a Water Main Break"

Our cab ride to Jacques-Imo's last night was beyond real. Our cabbie told us his story of Katrina. Basically, he rode out the storm in his apartment. After it passed, he went outside and checked out the damage. He said that he was tired, so he went back inside, turned up the heat & went to bed. A few hours later, he went back outside & saw that there was some water in the streets. He & his neighbors thought that perhaps a water pipe had broken, or something like that. A few hours later, there was more water in the streets. Still, they had no idea what was coming their way. Finally, word reached this neighborhood that the levees had been breached & they instantly knew that they were screwed. He escaped...and has been living in Brownsville, Texas for the past six months. And he really did not like it much. He just "returned" to NO last week to begin working again, but he still doesn't live in the city. In fact, he lives almost an hour away, near Baton Rouge & drives in every day to drive folks around the city.

God bless Amerr-ica.

P.S. The cabbie's cellie rang while we were along for the ride. He answered, "Hello? Hell-O?" Then he started to laugh really hard. "You'll never believe who's calling me!" He turned down the radio & held the phone up so that we could all hear who was on the other end of the line...a recording of Mayor Ray Nagin pleading for his vote in the upcoming mayoral election. Christ.